Forests and Trees

Between the catastrophic fires in SoCal, his Dumpiness looking to annex any countries not already spoken for by Pooty Putin, or Xi JinPing-a-Ling, and the incoming administration preventing the Senate from vetting Hegseth ahead of the vote, it easy to lose track of the big picture. But this is not a time to lose track of the big picture, if we want to return to a reasonable and responsible government.

Unfortunately, the big picture is rather muddled right now. There are lots of theories being loudly advocated for, but overall these is no one clear and compelling explanation regarding how we lost the presidency. With so many busy fighting Dumpy’s fires, it feels like little work is progressing on the big picture. And this matters. 

The big picture, or strategy, should provide the organizing principals around which key planks of the party are defined, and by which they are communicated to the public. Without strategy, we are always fighting brushfires lit by the Republicans to distract us from our mission.

I have said that the Democratic party needs its Frank Luntz, who can determine words and phrases that communicate, educate and motivate the masses. That may sound purely tactical, but it is not. Strategy needs communication as much as tactics do. And the communication must be approachable, informative and motivating. Policy is important, and it too must be communicated. But policy, by itself, is rarely approachable, informative or motivating. 

MSM could give a whit about policy or details re. his Dumpiness, but was intensely curious about, and never satisfied with, the details of Dem policy as promoted by Harris/Walz. Knowing that MSM has a conservative bias, that they were working to elect his Dumpiness, I have to wonder if they were less concerned with exposing policy than they were with boring the electorate with policy.

It could be well said that the presidential campaign was a contest between theater ans policy.